Alpha Centauri Amazons - Chapter 2
By Jan Vincent (2002)
Dwelling of the guilty party: jan123@hotmail.com As always, comments are welcome!
TWO
Lisa was in her sleeping quarters, staring through a window-size porthole. Her gaze was lost in the blue-and-white globe down below, around which the hateful man's ship was orbiting. She no longer wept; her eyes were dry now, as though all tears had been shed. She felt numb, listless, with nothing to live for. Her parents, her brother Phil, and her boyfriend Jake had been taken away from her; she had seen them lying dead in their beds during the gruesome vision that Hades, the hateful cloaked man, had projected into her mind. She couldn't recollect how many times she had cried and refused to believe that her loved ones, her friends no longer walked on that planet that looked at the same time so magnificent and fragile. But Hades took them back to Earth, showing the devastation he had caused, and so doing, he made his words real, leaving no room for hope. The cities as she knew them no longer existed. They had been consumed by fire or left inhabitable by the fall-out produced by hundreds of Chernobyl-like explosions in nuclear power plants spinning out of control, their operators dead or too weak to prevent a meltdown. She saw a sea of dead bodies lying on the streets and being devoured by maggots, rats, dogs, gulls and birds of prey. The cities were as silent as a cemetery; only the wind blew against the empty buildings, caterwauling its protest, playing with debris and refuse.
Hades brought the ship where she used to live. Through the huge transparent dome at the ship's bridge, Hades showed her house, still intact, the streets empty of people or traffic, populated by an occasional howling dog lamenting his master's death. She was not allowed to leave the ship and see for herself whether someone, anyone she knew, had survived. Hades told her it was not safe to go outside, for she could die as the whole human race apparently had. Ignoring the protests of the two hundred women before him, he continued his narrative of the Doomsday.
Lisa understood why she had been chosen by Hades to be the first one to "see" his demonic work. He knew she would understand the technical details of his successful plan -- to wipe out the human race from Planet Earth by means of a biological bomb. During her training as a molecular biologist, she had heard about biological warfare, but hadn't paid attention to the details of it. Death as a purpose was not her motivation. She wanted to find new treatments for human infertility; she wanted to help people bring forth life, not death. Still, she was familiar with the technical procedures he had used to engineer a deadly biological combination -- a cocktail of smallpox-causing variola viruses, genetically engineered to be one hundred percent lethal. He had spread the viral cocktail on a planetary scale, using his ship and a protective marble-like sphere which ensured that the viruses were still active when they reached the ground. The marble would pop open as soon as it detected the presence of humans in its vicinity.
"Curiosity killed the cat," he added, roaring with laughter. "And kids can't resist marbles, can they?"
Lisa brushed her eyes dry, exerting herself not to cry. If Hades were alive, she would kill him with her bare hands. She hated his laughter the most; he laughed at their horror and despair, his feline eyes showing no mercy, no respect for human life. But Hades was just a hologram. And how do you kill a hologram? Hades controlled that ship, heard and saw everything -- she was sure of it. There were times she doubted the reality of what she was going through. No one could be that cruel.
After a quick glance in the mirror to make sure that her cheeks were dry, Lisa left her room and went to the ship's cafeteria. Instead of using the gray corridor, she took the stairs and walked to the third level. She did not fear the magenta sparkles; it was because she needed the exercise. Three days on that ship was ruining her condition, as she used to jog every morning before going to the lab.
In the hustle and bustle of the cafeteria, Lisa looked for Mandy and Natasha. It took a few seconds before she noticed Mandy's raised hand waving at her. A little smile took shape on her face as she walked to meet them. She sat across from Mandy, blowing her bangs away from her eyes.
"Sleep well?" Mandy took another sip of her steaming tea, her yellowish green eyes scrutinizing Lisa's face.
"More or less."
"You look tired," Natasha said, her impeccably manicured hands holding a cookie as if it were a breakable work of art.
"I am." Lisa looked around and recognized a few familiar faces, including Linda Wells, who sat at another table.
"Aren't you going to eat anything?"
Lisa glanced at the woman who spoke to her. Her voice betrayed her young age. She was surely a teenager, with long shiny brown hair, an angelic face and a perfect, spotless skin that any woman would die for. She looked like those fashion models Lisa would simultaneously love, envy and hate. In fact, it seemed that to be attractive was a must on the ship. She evicted that thought from her mind, as she didn't want to think about Hades and the reasons why they were there.
"Aren't you going to eat anything?" the model-looking girl repeated. "Aren't you hungry?"
"And you are...?"
"I'm Sandy, Sandy Bates."
As a dutiful hostess would, Sandy introduced her roommate, Anita Chang, who, according to Lisa's understanding, exhibited an interesting mix of Latin American and oriental traits.
"I saw you when Hades showed you where you used to live. I really felt sorry for you."
Lisa examined Sandy Bates, who was as thin as a stick but ate as a ravenous waif. "Why do you say that? You must've lost your parents, too. And your boyfriend. And all your friends."
Sandy smiled. Her eyes glittered, then became darker than they usually were. "I never knew my mother. My father was as good as dead. And boyfriends... who needs them?"
Lisa was surprised by the waif's bitterness, so young and so full of hate. "Didn't you have any friends you're going to miss?"
"Yes, I do. Ted."
"Ted? I thought you didn't like men."
"I don't. Ted's a bitch. She was a dog, my dog, the only thing in my life I could call my own. I'm really going to miss her."
"Maybe not. Hades' viruses only kill humans... and perhaps monkeys and chickens. Chances are your dog is still alive."
"How do you know that?"
Lisa explained who she was. Sandy's eyes grew wider as she heard the blonde woman detail her career as a biology graduate and PhD student. The waif's brutal honesty had caught Lisa off guard for a moment, but Sandy did make the right questions. A discussion about Hades' motives was initiated and, as much as Lisa hated the subject, she spoke about the hateful man's deeds; somehow, Sandy's presence lessened the pain which kept assaulting her and made her heart ache.
"I still think he's lying to us."
"I agree with Mandy," Anita said. "He must be. I can't believe everybody is dead as he claims. My father was in the army and I know he got a smallpox shot."
"That's possible." Lisa exhaled, realizing how weak and tired she felt. "But don't forget that Hades' cocktail was not your normal smallpox virus. It was a modified version of it. Actually, he made hundreds of different strains, far more lethal than the normal smallpox virus. He aimed each one of them at a particular genetic population, because he knew that we are genetically different. These differences explain why someone survives... let's say... a flu epidemic, and another person succumbs to it."
"Excuse me," Natasha said, "but I'm in nursing school, and I learned that nobody gets smallpox shots anymore. Not since it's been totally eradicated."
"That's why he chose smallpox." Mandy sighed, taking a glance at Lisa, who played with a top of a beer bottle. "That bloke's a clever prick."
"But why did he choose us?" Anita looked around her and waited for an answer. None of the women was forthcoming; they evaded each other's stares, looking down or eyeing Lisa, who absentmindedly kept sending the bottle top into successive spins. She insisted, "Why only women? I can't understand that."
"I told you already. He wants all the women to himself. He couldn't get any of us, so he killed all men. And now he expects us to bonk him every day of our lives. Brilliant, innit?"
"Bonk him?" Sandy asked, teasing a grape with her perfectly aligned, white teeth. "What's that?"
Mandy looked at the teenager and laughed. "I'm so sorry, but sometimes I forget that you, Yankees, do not speak my language."
A shower of crumpled paper napkins hit Mandy on the face; she smiled despite the loud booing.
"Hey, it's a joke. Can't you take a joke?"
"But he's a hologram," Anita said, turning the palms of her hands up. "How can he... bonk us if he's not real. That doesn't make sense."
"That's what he wants us to believe."
"Are you telling us that he's real?" Anita folded her arms, staring at Mandy, who endeavored to steal the bottle top from Lisa.
"Look, I don't know anything. I know as much as you. But I don't buy this story that he's a computer program. Come on, do you buy that?" Mandy examined the women's faces, pausing for a reaction. "Do you? Because I don't. He's lied to us since day one. I think this is a kind of an experiment, to test something I still do not fully comprehend."
Mandy's last remark caused a heated discussion among the women at Lisa's table. More women came and joined them, contributing to the turmoil, frustration and anger simmering inside them. Lisa could sense all these hidden emotions in the other women. She stopped her ears, smothering the noise produced by dozens of voices speaking their minds at the same time. She sighed and hung her head and caressed the nape of her neck, coming to the conclusion that someone had to do something. Someone had to show some leadership or their situation could become desperate. There were already a few worrying signs of impatience and short temper among the Chosen People.
"OK, listen. Listen, please!"
"Hey, shut up," Mandy shouted above all the others. "Lisa's gonna speak."
As the fracas dwindled into a whisper, Lisa gave an account of her plan. She proposed a new meeting with all the women on board. They had to choose a leader, who would negotiate with Hades for their release and the prompt administration of a vaccine against his viruses. If he had concocted the doomsday viruses, he must know how to make the antidote.
Most of the women nodded save a handful of dissidents who sat at another table. The dissenting group was the first one to leave the cafeteria, vowing they would block any resolution bestowing special powers upon Lisa Wells.
"Just ignore them," Mandy whispered into Lisa's ear as they walked to the gray corridor leading to the meeting room. "They are just jealous of you."
"I didn't mean that I wanted to be the leader. But someone must draw a plan, a strategy to get out of this place."
"I know that," Mandy said, pressing Lisa's hand fleetingly with her cold fingers. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you win. I think you'd give a hell of a leader. Our queen. Queen Lisa, the first."
"Stop it," Lisa said, feeling sudden heat on her cheeks. That Aussie woman knew how to embarrass her.
Mandy O'Neill, hands on her hips, watched the women look for a place to sit in the meeting room. She felt that she was being studied by uncountable stares , but that close inspection didn't bother her. She had been in direr straits before, risking her neck to get her story , reporting tumults and denouncing massacres in various parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. She particularly remembered the savagery she had witnessed on a small island to the north of her country: East Timor. She had witnessed how cruel human beings could be. To face these confused, frightened women was a cinch.
Soon as the room quieted down, Mandy summarized their predicament in a few sentences, introduced Lisa's plan, and asked if someone had anything to say. Forestalling any untimely protest, she quickly suggested that Lisa be their leader. Mandy braced herself for angry disapproval, but the room stayed eerily silent. Mandy's reddish brows arched with surprise.
"What? Aren't you going to say anything?"
"Why Lisa?" a blonde woman asked, raising her hand. "Why not you?"
"I don't want to lead anyone."
"Why not?"
"Mother of all saints! Because I think Lisa is the right woman. I'll be happy to help her, but that's as far as I want to go."
Hushed words filled the room until Lisa rose to her feet and confronted the recalcitrant young audience with her gaze.
"I don't want to be your leader," Lisa began. "I think what we should do is to choose a few of us who would make a plan, ask Hades to take us back home. I'm here against my will, as all of you are. I want to go home and see if I can find survivors, any survivors. Most of all, I want to find my parents and my brother. I want to see if they're still alive."
"I don't agree," said a tall brunette, who sprang to her feet. "If we go down there, we'll die. Hades told us so. I think we should wait."
"Hades's lying," Lisa replied, raising her voice, nipping in the bud any further murmur. The silence, interrupted on and off by coughing, weighed heavy on Lisa's patience.
"Why do you say that?" the blonde woman asked, raising her hand once again.
"There are a few inconsistencies in Hades' story. I want to straighten them out with him."
The meeting was drawn out for two additional hours before Lisa succeeded in having her proposal voted favorably. Lisa, Mandy, and Sandra -- the inquisitive blonde -- were selected to form a temporary committee, whose main goal was to bring the ship safely back to Earth.
"Tough crowd," Mandy breathed out as she left the meeting room with Lisa and Natasha.
"You bet. But I am used to it."
"Why is that?"
"I've presented my work in meetings like this. And believe me, they didn't go easy on me."
"I keep forgetting you're a scientist." Mandy grinned at Lisa, provoking an unwilling smile to appear on the other woman's face. "You don't look like one."
"Oh yeah?" Lisa stopped walking and faced Mandy. "So, do tell how a scientist looks like, according to Ms. O'Neill?"
"Old, bald, potbellied, and male."
Lisa drew breath to protest; on noticing Mandy's amusement, she burst into laughter instead. "You don't believe that, do you?"
"It's my personal experience in Australia, Queen Doctor Lisa Wells. Maybe I've interviewed the wrong people."
Lisa laughed out loud again, grasping hold of Mandy's arm and steadying herself.
"Well, here in the States, we do things differently."
Mandy was about to remind Lisa they were not in the U.S., but hovering hundreds of miles above the Earth. She bit her tongue, as she didn't want to spoil that moment. Lisa was a good sport; she had earned a little respite from her.
Lisa, Mandy and Sandra drifted into shocked surprise when they realized how much work had to be done. They divided the most urgent tasks among them. Mandy became responsible for the logistics and chore assignment; Sandra, a former Royal Canadian Air Force jet pilot, was to learn everything she could about the ship; and Lisa had to deal with Hades and obtain the antidote that would make them immune to the doomsday viruses. Their planning was suddenly disrupted by Natasha, who wheeled in Lisa's and Mandy's room in breathless haste.
"You gotta come to the cafeteria." Natasha took a deep breath before she could speak again. "There's a major fight going on up there, between Sandy Bates and Kirsten Johanssen."
"I knew that girl was trouble," said Lisa, getting up with a hurried bound.
"What girl?" Mandy joined Lisa, Natasha and Sandra, who accelerated their pace and dove into the gray corridor that was going to transport them to the third level. "Sandy Bates?"
Mandy's questions did not receive an answer. Lisa had closed her eyes, feeling the energy of the magenta sparkles going through her body and catapulting her upward at an vertiginous speed. Soon as their feet hit the third level, the women scrambled into the cafeteria in time to see Sandy's right fist hit the face of her opponent, an athletic woman whose light, almost white, flaxen hair was twined into a myriad of short braids.
"Stop it right there," Lisa ordered, noticing that a thin line of blood oozed out of the blonde's left nostril.
The blonde's anger turned to blind rage as she saw her bloodied hand, which had touched her own face in search of wounds. Fast as lightning, and screaming like a devil, the blonde kicked Sandy in the stomach, bringing her defiant antagonist to her knees, hitting the floor with a thud, panting for breath. Before she could round off her final onslaught, Mandy and Sandra restrained the enraged woman, who kept screaming insults at Sandy.
"I'll kill you next time! I will!"
"No, you won't," Mandy said, tightening her grasp of the woman, who still struggled for her freedom. "We won't let you."
"Yes, I will," she said, her voice breaking with hate. "You're sick, your hear me? You're sick, and you disgust me."
Lisa made her way through the crowd of curious women, who had passively witnessed the brawl, and now huddled together near the moaning adolescent, bent double on the floor of the cafeteria. Lisa knelt next to the girl, reining in her exasperation at the crowd's apathy.
"Are you all right?" Lisa brushed the long brown strands away from the face of the prostrated girl, who still held her arms in a tight clasp against her stomach. Lisa pulled at Sandy's right arm, to no avail; the girl seemed determined to stay in that uncomfortable position. It seemed as though Sandy's pride had suffered a deeper blow than her stomach, her shame preventing her from rising to her feet to meet the crowd's curiosity and any eventual snide remark. "Come on, Sandy. You can't stay like this all day."
"Leave me alone." The teenager's voice sounded muffled and doleful.
"I won't, if you don't get up." Lisa waited patiently for a reaction. Slowly but steadily a plan took shape in Lisa's mind. She was going to hit the teenager in her most vulnerable spot -- her pride. "Look at you now; you look absolutely ridiculous with your face against the floor and your butt sticking up in the air."
As intended, Lisa's remark caused universal hilarity. In a swift, agile motion, Sandy leapt to her feet and streaked across the crowd and into a gray corridor. Despite the abruptness of the girl's reaction, Lisa was able to notice Sandy's flushed cheeks before she was taken away by the magenta sparkles.
"Damn," Lisa said, standing up. Because the girl could now be anywhere on the ship, Lisa decided against going after the troublemaker. She approached Mandy and Sandra, who no longer restrained Sandy's tormentor, but were apparently pummeling some sense into a willful, impetuous head. Pulling Mandy aside, she said, "What the hell happened?"
"A lovers' spat," Mandy replied, displaying her wriest grin.
"You have to do better than that. Tell me."
Mandy's face lost her grin and gained unusual seriousness. She sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. She won't tell. This Kirsten Johanssen's a tough cookie. I don't know what Hades was thinking when he included these two hotheads in his twisted version of Noah's ark."
"Because they're pretty and have an attractive pair of tits. That's how men choose their women, didn't you know that?"
"No, I didn't, " Mandy said, her pensive face regaining its mischievousness. "My tits ain't big, but I do get my men."
"If there were any left," Lisa said automatically, without measuring the consequences of her remark. A heavy, awkward silence came between both women. During their short-lived friendship, in a deliberate way, they had avoided any mention to the genocide of humankind. It brought memories too painful to be dealt with. A collective amnesia was slowly lodging in everybody's minds, or so it seemed to Lisa. Unwittingly the death of their loved ones had become a taboo subject, something to be forgotten, to be buried under a pile of sludge so that it couldn't come to the surface and hurt them again. There were a few times that the effects of Hades' actions were discussed in a business-like fashion, because they must; but never had they spoken so directly about the disappearance of someone. Lisa brought her hand to her eyes, unable to stop her emotions from building up. She cried freely, tears trickling down her cheeks, turning her back on Mandy, keeping her shame and anger to herself.
Mandy went about her friend and held her gently in her arms, soothing her. Lisa did not appreciate the embrace, for Mandy's arms appeared to be on fire, scorching the parts of her body with which they came into contact. Lisa quivered and made herself plain she didn't want to be held; Mandy broke her embrace, for the first time showing some embarrassment.
"I'm gonna look for Sandy," Lisa said. She sniffled and dried her welling eyes.
"OK," Mandy replied curtly as she watched Lisa walk away.
Sandy was nowhere to be found. Natasha had joined Lisa's quest for the brown-eyed, quarrelsome teenager, but an hour later they still didn't know where the girl was. It became obvious to Lisa that their meager knowledge of the ship's layout was a severe hindrance to their self-imposed mission. They learned that Sandy had been on the second level, where the sleeping quarters were located, but the women who had seen the girl were not able to designate where Sandy, or Anita Chang, used to sleep.
"This girl doesn't make many friends," Lisa said. She sighed as she cast a quick glance at yet another empty room.
"She's a spoilt rich kid," Natasha replied, her teeth gnawing a gum ruthlessly.
Lisa controlled herself and chose not to voice her dislike for Natasha's characterization of Sandy. After all, how much did she know about that girl? Natasha shouldn't have criticized Sandy, Lisa decided, shaking her head in silence and recalling the moment when the Russian woman wielded her father's criminal clout to threaten Hades.
"I'm gonna give up," Lisa announced as they walked by the doorway of her room. "It's no use to go on searching for someone who doesn't want to be found. Not until we know this ship from top to bottom."
"I couldn't agree more. All this searching made me hungry. Wanna come to the cafeteria and grab a snack?"
"Nope. I'm tired. I want to have some rest. I'll see you upstairs." Lisa waved the Russian goodbye and went through the door of her room, as a ghost on Earth would. Mandy had discovered this astonishing "trick" the day before -- that they could cross the entrance of their room without opening the door; the same way as white blood cells are able to squeeze through the walls of blood vessels without causing a wound, Lisa called to mind, drifting back to her days in college, when she was madly in love with Kevin Gates, the young, enthusiastic professor, who taught her cell biology and immunology.
Lisa jumped to her bed, turned over so that she looked up at the ceiling, spread-eagled. She closed her eyes and thought of nothing. She didn't want to think or dream. She wanted her life back. Damn you, Hades, she cursed silently. Damn you!
"Did you call for me?"
Lisa opened her eyes, sitting straight on her bed. "Jesus! You... Hades, get out of my room."
The cloaked figure displayed a feral smile, his eyes shimmering for a split second, then reacquiring their normal brilliance. "I just heard my name and I knew I must come."
"Get out of my room. Now!"
"All right, my dear," he concurred mellifluously. "I thought you wanted to have a word with me." The last word said, he began to fade out, the green mist surrounding him dimming accordingly.
"Wait," Lisa said before he was able to vanish into thin air.
The green luminosity grew stronger, his smile turning into a weird grin. "Yes?" he said with a lilting drawl.
"You can read my mind?"
"Most of the times. But I will not tell you when I cannot."
"You were stupid enough to tell me you had weaknesses. So why stopping now?"
"Lisa dear," he said, his grin gone. "You do not hurt me with that sort of misplaced insult. Tell me what you want to know."
"If you can read my mind, you know what I want to know."
"Who I am and what I want to do with you. Is that so?"
"Look how smart you are," Lisa said, sending him a glowering look.
"Yes, I am; I wouldn't have built this ship with my own hands otherwise. I was helped by the technology of my forefathers, but still this ship is my own creation."
"And who might be your forefathers? Hitler and Stalin?"
Hades smiled again. "I never had the pleasure to meet those gentlemen personally, but I must say they made their point in History."
"You're sick." Lisa shook her head, sitting cross-legged on her bed.
"No, I am not," he said, vehemence transpiring from the way he motioned his hands. "I am sounder than you think. I saved your planet from an ecological disaster. Mankind was destroying your planet, my planet... You were raping it every day with your ever growing cities of steel, your wasteful way of living, your lust producing more babies than the world could feed. You burnt entire forests to assuage your thirst for gold, the metal that speaks louder than good intentions. My forefathers and I have decided we could not allow that to continue."
"You sound like a goddamn nazi. So, your answer to the world's problems was to kill everybody?"
"Yes. That was our decision."
Lisa balled her hands into fists, breathing with difficulty. "Who is 'we'? Who are you? Who is your people you talk about?"
"You will learn that soon enough. I will show you where my ancestors live, then you will understand our motivations. In time you will concede that we were right and within reason."
"In your dreams," Lisa whispered as he faded away, the room becoming darker than it was before Hades' appearance.
Lisa left her room -- her desire to sleep had evaporated. She let herself be transported to the third level. She wanted to talk to someone and lay the truth before them. After all they were captives at the hands of a sanguinary phenomenon, who could read their minds and control them as if they were puppets. They were not to return to Earth, but go to an unknown place and meet their 'masters', a powerful civilization which played God with them.
"Lisa?" a voice behind her called.
Lisa wheeled about, her hands as fists, feeling tired and despondent, hiding barely her ire. "Yes?" she said, recognizing Linda's slender frame, her shoulder-length, sandy hair, which flowed easily around her panicky eyes.
"Mandy and Sandra have been looking for you."
"I was in my room."
"Yes... You look like you've had a bad dream."
"I wish it was just a dream."
"What do you mean?"
Noticing that she was on the verge of sending Linda to hell, Lisa shut her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry," she said, opening her eyes. She held her own face with both hands, then pulled her hair up and let it fall down her shoulders, sighing. "Nothing personal here, but I need..." Lisa stopped herself; a better way of getting rid of the irksome young woman crossed her mind. "Would you do me a favor?"
"Yes, of course," said Linda, blinking her eyes.
"Our little mouse is more helpful today," Lisa registered in a mental note. Out loud Lisa summoned her most polite tone of voice, and asked the other woman if she could go and find Mandy and Sandra; she needed talk to them urgently.
"Sure," Linda said. "I know where they are. Follow me."
Lisa smiled inwardly, realizing she had handled the "Mouse" correctly , for the "Mouse" was as happy as could be. She sensed some pride in the other young woman's face, as if she felt useful for the first time in her life.
"How old are you, anyway?" Lisa asked as they proceeded to a wing of the ship where she had never been before.
"Seventeen. Why?"
"Damn, this Hades likes them young."
"What?"
"Nothing; I was just talking to myself."
"And you? How old are you?"
"Twenty-four," Lisa replied musingly, almost forgetting to whom she was talking. She scanned the walls of the hall where they walked, searching for clues that would reveal a weakness in Hades' plan. She knew, however, that surprise was not a factor they could use against him, unless it was something so unpredictable that she hadn't thought of before. All bets were off. They had to win and crush the bastard.